The Battle of Lake Benacus was fought along the banks of Lake Garda in northern Italy, which was known to the Romans as Benacus, in early 269 AD, between the army under the command of the Roman Emperor Claudius II and the Germanic tribes of the Alamanni and Juthungi.
Ιn 268, τhe Alamanni, who had been making incursions into Roman territory since the reign of Marcus Aurelius, had broken through the Roman frontier at the Danube and crossed the Alps, when the power struggles around Mediolanum (Aureolus' revolt, murder of Gallienus, confrontation between Aureolus and Claudius) forced the Romans to denude the frontier of troops. The Alamanni started pillaging northern Italy while Claudius headed north to confront them. Details of the battle are unknown but future emperor Aurelian certainly played a part. After this victory, Claudius assumed the title Germanicus Maximus.
Famous quotes containing the words battle and/or lake:
“Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)